PISA TEST SCORES 2013
"and crack the calculus text."
Sorry, but no. Our math curriculum puts far too much emphasis on the math of continuous functions for our modern, digital age.
We need to spend more time on discrete math and linear algebra, and not so much on calculus.
With the “new math” and the sort of pedagogical stupidity (particularly where math is concerned) that has infected teacher’s colleges (and is now part of the common core), it’s a miracle that any students manage to learn math anymore. Math education seems to be a steady downward trend. Whether these poor techniques for teaching math (and of course, your average elementary school teacher very likely barely scraped through math themselves) are just part of an well-meaning but ill-considered idea, or part of a plan to deliberately reduce the quality of math education (amongst other areas of education) is a matter for discussion.